'The Master,' 'Killing Them Softly,' shift release dates

The Weinstein Company is looking to get a jump on this season’s Oscar competition. The Master, Paul Thomas Anderson’s drama about a cult-like figure who resembles the father of Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard, has been moved up a month and will now open in theaters on Sept. 14. The movie, which stars Philip Seymour Hoffman as a dynamic guru and Joaquin Phoenix as a troubled World War II vet, was originally slated to open on Oct. 12.

The studio also announced that Killing Them Softly, which was to debut on Sept. 21, has been pushed back to Oct. 19. That underworld action-thriller, with Brad Pitt playing a mob enforcer, was well received when it opened at Cannes earlier this year.